---
id: KB-IU-022
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/manufacturing/the-manufacturer-the-questions-come-back-to
idioma: en
categoria: sector-industria
subcategoria: electrico
audiencia: usuario
nivel: avanzado
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-IU-020, KB-IU-021]
citadoPor: [KB-CN-034, KB-IU-031]
---

# The manufacturer the questions come back to

_You sold that four years ago and today you hear from someone who never bought from you. The chain sends its questions back to the start._

**Responde a:** how long to keep technical documentation · my distributors customer is asking me for papers · traceability of what i made years ago · which version of the product went to whom

You are the start of the chain, and that carries a consequence that takes years to surface: **every question eventually comes back here**. The importer cannot answer alone, nor can the distributor, and when the chain runs out of answers it looks upstream. What arrives is not a sales enquiry but a specific request about something that left your plant when the product was a different one.

## What makes answering hard, and it is not a missing archive

| What is asked | Why it is hard | What resolves it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| About one specific unit | It went out in a batch of a thousand | Knowing which version that batch carried |
| About a discontinued product | It is no longer made | Keeping the documentation after the product dies |
| From a customer who is not yours | They are not in your records | Being able to answer by product, not by customer |
| **About a design change** | **It was three versions ago** | **Having each version dated and its period recorded** |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **The technical file does not age with the product: it ages with the last unit sold.** It is the commonest error of perspective in this position. A reference is withdrawn from the catalogue, the folder is tidied away and the matter considered closed — but out there units are running, and a chain two or three links long will keep asking about them long after you stopped making them.

## What to decide once and apply always

1. **What is kept per version, and until when** — Counted from the last unit sold, not from the end of production.
2. **How to find which version a batch carried** — Without it, every question becomes a full investigation.
3. **Who answers when a stranger asks** — Your distributor's customer will write to you anyway.
4. **And what is handed over and what is not** — Deciding beforehand avoids improvising with sensitive material in front of you.

> [!WARNING]
> There is a specific and not obvious risk in this position: **answering with too much**. An urgent request arrives from someone you do not know, with a real problem, and the quick way out is to send the whole file. Inside go things that did not need showing —calculations, suppliers, tolerances— and that cannot be taken back. Having decided in advance what is handed over for each kind of question turns a decision under pressure into a procedure.

> [!NOTE]
> What technical documentation must be retained, for how many years, who may require its production and what part of it must be handed to a third party **depends on the product and the market, and is settled by your adviser or the relevant body**. Here we cover the organisational part: how to find it, how to know which version applies, and how not to hand over more than needed.

**Can I archive everything once I stop making a product?**

Archive yes, delete no. The chain keeps asking years afterwards.

**Must I answer a customer who is not mine?**

It depends, but they will reach you anyway. Better to decide in advance who answers and with what.

**How do I know which version a batch carried?**

Only if it was recorded at the time. Afterwards there is no way to deduce it with certainty.

## Ejemplos

**A request arrives about a unit sold four years ago.**

- Keeps which version covered each batch and from when

→ The answer comes from the archive rather than an investigation.

**A product is discontinued and its documentation is filed without criteria.**

- Sets retention counted from the last unit sold

→ What is still out there still has backing.

**A customer of your distributor, unknown to you, writes in.**

- Allows searching by product and not only by customer

→ It is answered without depending on who was invoiced.

**Each version overwrites the previous one in the same folder.**

- Stores versions with their dates instead of replacing them

→ You can say what applied at any given moment.

**An urgent request is answered by sending the entire file.**

- Controls which documents are shared and with whom

→ What was needed is handed over, not what sat beside it.

**The distributor and the importer ask the same thing separately.**

- Makes the document available to whoever needs to see it

→ The same question stops being answered twice.